Homemade Fertilizer Supplement

MuddyBuckets · February 13, 2021

Need advice and thoughts on using this homemade suppliment to my 5 gallon container media (last years batch) for tomatoes, peppers and okra. The mix is as follows:

3/4 pint of egg shell powder (shells washed and sterilized in the oven before pulverizing in the blender)
1 Tablespoon of garden sulphur
1 Tablespoon of Epsom Salts

Will 4 Tablespoons in a 5 gallon container a month or so before planting be sufficient to amend the media? Considering additional ferts like MG Tomato Fertilizer when planting in late April.

AKmark · February 15, 2021

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuddyBuckets

Need advice and thoughts on using this homemade suppliment to my 5 gallon container media (last years batch) for tomatoes, peppers and okra. The mix is as follows:

3/4 pint of egg shell powder (shells washed and sterilized in the oven before pulverizing in the blender)
1 Tablespoon of garden sulphur
1 Tablespoon of Epsom Salts

Will 4 Tablespoons in a 5 gallon container a month or so before planting be sufficient to amend the media? Considering additional ferts like MG Tomato Fertilizer when planting in late April.

You need to find out how much available Ca come s from those eggshells. You also should not need that S, MgSO4 is Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salts). That's a hard one to call, I have found that the home gardener mix successes comes from tinkering with them season to season and keeping track of amounts, ratios, and application frequency.

JRinPA · February 16, 2021

Does your media only shrink about 1 pt for 5 gallons over the course of the year?

My rain gutter buckets shrink and pack down a bit over summer to fall. That little bit of mass added would not replace it all for me. It might be that my medium shrinks so much due to the wicking? I add in probably 20-30 percent new each year. Since it is mostly compost added, it seems there are plenty of micronutrients that make it in, plus I add fertilizer and epsom salt. I do this when the long season crops are going in.

Over winter, the buckets are covered with leaves. In spring they are seeded or transplanted with spring crops without any repack at that time.

zipcode · February 16, 2021

20% seems a lot in one season. But it also depends on the media. The more coarse peat you have, the less it compacts. I also assume a constant watering will decompose it faster. I lose about 10% with top watering.

@MuddyBuckets, unless you have ph issues (pH going up during the season), I would skip the sulfur. The eggshells I guess can be useful, what could also be useful is some stone flour for extra minerals. Both of these will take a while to be available, hard to say when. And you can always supplement with epsom salts during the growth.

February 13, 2021	#1
MuddyBuckets Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Eastern/Coastal NC 8b Posts: 192	Homemade Fertilizer Supplement Need advice and thoughts on using this homemade suppliment to my 5 gallon container media (last years batch) for tomatoes, peppers and okra. The mix is as follows: 3/4 pint of egg shell powder (shells washed and sterilized in the oven before pulverizing in the blender) 1 Tablespoon of garden sulphur 1 Tablespoon of Epsom Salts Will 4 Tablespoons in a 5 gallon container a month or so before planting be sufficient to amend the media? Considering additional ferts like MG Tomato Fertilizer when planting in late April.

February 16, 2021	#3
JRinPA Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: SE PA Posts: 972	Does your media only shrink about 1 pt for 5 gallons over the course of the year? My rain gutter buckets shrink and pack down a bit over summer to fall. That little bit of mass added would not replace it all for me. It might be that my medium shrinks so much due to the wicking? I add in probably 20-30 percent new each year. Since it is mostly compost added, it seems there are plenty of micronutrients that make it in, plus I add fertilizer and epsom salt. I do this when the long season crops are going in. Over winter, the buckets are covered with leaves. In spring they are seeded or transplanted with spring crops without any repack at that time.

February 16, 2021	#4
zipcode Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6 Posts: 1,582	20% seems a lot in one season. But it also depends on the media. The more coarse peat you have, the less it compacts. I also assume a constant watering will decompose it faster. I lose about 10% with top watering. @MuddyBuckets, unless you have ph issues (pH going up during the season), I would skip the sulfur. The eggshells I guess can be useful, what could also be useful is some stone flour for extra minerals. Both of these will take a while to be available, hard to say when. And you can always supplement with epsom salts during the growth.